Young people in the hobby.

[Jeff]

I am always hearing that there are no young people in our hobby. A lot of us are in our 40's But looking at the video from the world expo this is just not the case at least not in Europe. It seems that in in Europe fantasy figures get more respect then they do in the States . To me they are a way for the younger painters to find their way in to the more historical end of the figure hobby.

I remember years ago when I first got in to SCAHMS They were always saying we need more young guys in the club. I would say that if we wanted to attract younger members then we need to look at the kids doing war games figures. The guys in charge would always say we don't want those guys in the club. My answer was always that that is how I started. I loved doing the larger 54mm historical figures. Going from the 25mm figures I was used to painting to 54mm they seemed huge, they were so much fun.

To me fantasy figures will always be a good place to find young painters. I am so glad to see more clubs adding best fantasy subjects to their awards. I love seeing the 54mm fantasy pieces show up on the market of late they look like a perfect way to get more people in to the hobby at large.

 

[Jason W.]

I agree with everything you say Jeff. But where do we find them? I live close to a fairly large town and the hobby shops I frequented have closed down. In my mind, you take away the hobby shops, you take away the kid who wonders in to see the "toys".

I remember going into the Rider's Hobby Shop in Lansing and they would have one wall entirely devoted to D&D games, figs, paints, etc. This shop was close to Michigan State University and we know there's always a few gaming geeks floating around campuses. This shop closed down a few years ago. End of an era.

I fear, as time goes on, we will see fewer and fewer young modelers emerging, atleast here in the States. Our culture and society runs on instant gratification. I don't want to blame the computer/video gaming...But c'mon! Whats more stimulating? Sitting down at a table, straining your eyes, trying to paint that one detail perfect? Or seeing all that colorful action on the video game screen unfold before your eyes?

Gosh, I hope I'm wrong.

I'm slowly introducing my kids (ages 7 and 9) into the hobby. I don't want to push them into it but rather let them discover it themselves. I plan on building a workbench their size and putting it into my hobby room. They can draw, paint, whatever gets the creative mind going and not worry about making a mess. Hopefully having this space will
jump start their imagination. With luck, they will find something they like and call it a hobby.

Jason

 

[tonydawe]

The question of how we can attract kids to our hobby is one that I've been working on for many years. As one of the organisers behind the Western Australian Scale Model Expo (WASMEx), our Committee have sought to attract younger modellers by giving away kits as prizes to all junior entrants, and year on year it seems to be working. Both the number of junior entrants and the quality of their entries has improved every year since we started back in 1999. The numbers are relatively small, but each one is a precious victory.

Other local modellers here in Perth conduct junior modelling workshops at local hobby shops and try to pass on some of their skills and enthusiasm to younger modellers, who really respond to this kind of mentoring. These kids learn so quickly in this kind of environment and they really develop their skills to a high level for their age.

I've tried to get my two sons (13 & 11 years old) into modelling with limited success. I am competing against the X-Box 360, girls, sports, TV and other forms of entertainment which give them instant gratification.

From what I've seen locally, fantasy war games (War Hammer etc.) are very popular with kids and provide a good starting point for those kids who want to go on and develop their modelling skills. These War Hammer pieces are relatively cheap and provide a social environment where they get to meet and compete against other enthusiasts. I haven't seen too many 40 year old Virgins playing these games.

It's difficult to see how we will be able to attract large numbers of kids to figure modelling when the average 54mm white metal figure costs as much as it does. When I started figure modelling back in the early 1970's, I could buy a Tamiya 35th scale figure set with my pocket money each week.

I also have a theory - most of us "graduate" to figure modelling after serving an apprencticeship as armour or aircraft modellers. Given that painting figures does require a very high degree of painting skill, it's natural that younger modellers may feel intimidated and be unwilling to try figures until their painting skills are sufficiently developed. I got into figures via AFV/ armour modelling, and found it more enjoyable to paint the crew figures than actually building the tank itself.

I'd be curious to know if others have a similar experience of being introduced to figure modelling, and hear from anyone who has developed successful strategies to recruit and attract kids into figure modelling.

By the way, my own figure modelling club has picked up two local junor modellers through Planet Figure. Thanks pF.

 

[Steve]

"...we don't want those guys in the club..." is how we end up at meetings where the average age is 58. Of course there is no "good old boy" network, so this must just be an aberration that just happens everywhere. Take 'em where we can find 'em, I say. Talented game piece players quite often become talented big figure painters if we just let 'em in the door. Well said!

 

[Figure Mad]

I have just been on to Cool Mini or Not (CMoN) and on there is a growing coverage of gaming Historical figures, where the figures seem to be getting a little bigger in size. I think its just taking the Historical painters longer to accept the Fantasy side, than the other way round. But with the likes of companies like Enigma, Andrea, Pegaso and quiet a few others this is helping bridge the gap. So the increase in the fantasy side is dragging the historical side with it. After all the new school of painting has been seen on the competition table for years and they know that if the old school wasn’t there, there would be no new school.......

Hi Jason - I dont know if you have them over there, but we have Game shops which are GW stores, thats where the kids are on a saturday morning, just go hijack the place, I have been asked to take some historical pieces down to my local Game for the kids to look at before now, for some reason they just grasp the painting side of it but not the subject, I think its because it doesn’t worry them, if they like it they will have a go

Dave

 

[jamesP]

Well, i'm 14 and myself started with figures from games workshop and it is certainly true that there are far more younger modellers in the war gaming/fantasy area. It seems to me that this is far more accessible to younger people with games workshops right on the street and easy to walk in to and browse, plus the staff are most helpful where as on the historical side of things there seems to be no shops ( at least where live ) and seems far more difficult to found out about and get started in which isn't doing any good for this hobby. Although the standard and quality of work is outstanding these days i can't see where the next generation is coming from and i think unless the fantasy/war gaming side of things is embraced and i don;t think there will be a next generation.
Thanks
James

 

[John Bowery]

James,
Welcome to our group and thanks for commenting. Nice to have you here.

Tony, I am also like you and started with planes, tanks and diorama's and added figures in the later stages. Now I do a plane once in a blue moon

The Chicago MMSI has just this year added a fantasy division and it was well represented with some great pieces as you will note on the photo's posted in other threads.

Cheers
John

 

[Jeff]

I remember when I head that Tom Meir was going to be one of the speakers at the Boston World Expo I was very happy. I also thought it was about time. I do not know how may times I put his name forward to SCAMS as some one to do lecture at one of our shows. Tom was always one my favorite sculptors and his Thunderbolt Mountain line had some nice historical pieces. . It was the shift from his style of sculpting to the Games Workshop style that really sent me away from that side of the hobby. Now the Games Work style is the dominate style of 30mm figures.

""...we don't want those guys in the club..." is how we end up at meetings where the average age is 58. "

That is very true. You might be surprised to know who it was that was most resistant to the idea of looking for members at war games events. But I did not start the thread to point fingers. I started the thread to point out that we need to broaden our horizons if we want the hobby to grow. They seem to be doing just that in Europe. We seem to have been a little slow on the uptake here. It has gotten better since I got in to the hobby.

This year at the Olympics they added new category's in rowing events. Events that in the past you just could not compete in if you were not at least 6' feet tall. Short guys just did not make the teams but by adding events for athletes of a smaller and lighter stature they expanded the list of possible contestants and hopefully will grow the sport. I have always been interested in rowing but in my college days I would have been hard pressed to be any thing but a coxswain. (That is the guy who steers the boat if you did not know.)But the point is they added more category's.

That is what we need to do as well. We need to be open to other types of figures and other painting styles. I remember years ago when Raúl Latorre painted one of his pieces with a lighting style that highlighted the face and chest of his figure but let the other parts fall into shadow. The figure painting world just went nuts they all seemed to hate it. I remember him explaining what it was he was going for at one of the SCAHMS shows. He said was trying an effect that was used on some of the paintings of the old masters. He had wondered how it would look applied to a 3D figure. To me it was a really interesting choice, and for the time a bold one. Some of the boldest lighting choices I have seen are in the fantasy and Sci-Fi figures. Painters who paint single light sources such as the light of a torch or fire off of figures and scenery. It seems to be working it's way in to our side of the hobby now. The more open we are to new things the more people we will see enter the hobby. And isn't that what we would all like to see. Even if means we see fewer WWII Germans or Napoleonic figures. Don't worry guys the expansion of Sci-Fi at IPMS shows has not even put a dent in the number of Mustangs and 109's at those shows. In fact I would not even call it a scratch.

 

[magister militum]

I'm 26 and with the decreasing interest in fantasy table top games (at least here in the States), I think you will see a growing number of younger-ish painters join the hobby.

 

[garyjd]

I would say that if we wanted to attract younger members then we need to look at the kids doing war games figures. The guys in charge would always say we don't want those guys in the club.

Boy, as if that remark does not sound elitest.

I think it's a bad move to have a strict forumla as to what "type" of person will fit the vision of what the club feels a member SHOULD be. It's definitely a case where thinking outside the box could yield some positive results. ~Gary

 

[vergilius]

It's the same problem in europe I guess! Many members of my club did some modelling when they were younger; the usual tanks or planes. Then it all stopped when our eyes noticed 'girls'. after many years in which we got married, had children and some of us perhaps got divorced we picked up the hobby again. Well over our 30s by then. Most of us then started with scale figures more seriously. In the meantime the new generations started like we once did only their interest has shifted from more historical figures to fantasy. Personally I thing it's wrong to force them to start on historical 54 mm's. Let them enter and do their stuff. You wouldn't be happy if you only could enter a club if you started painting fantasy? I wouldn't ! and who knows maybe one day they get interested in history

 

[thegoodsgt]

A few years ago someone in IPMS suggested that we'd probably find more success recruiting people into the hobby by targeting adults. The forces that attract children and teenagers are difficult to overcome, so we should probably target adults who have a strong interest in re-enacting, history, or the military.

 

[Jeff]

The thing is the younger guys are already painting figures they are just not usually historical. They are fantasy or science fiction gaming figures. I always liked knights in armor. That is what got me into the gaming figures. There were a lot more Knights available as gaming figures at least back when I started painting which was back in the late 70's early 80's.

But I always loved the larger 54mm figures. When you are young you have lots of time to paint. When you are older not so much. When I was 17 I could take the time to paint an army to play a game but there is no way I could do that now. And the way Games Workshop works now you have to make a whole new army every year or so because they have a planed obsolescence. If you do not have an army approved for play that year you do not get to compete in GW events. Which if you ask me sucks.

I think that is why a lot of guys switch over when they get older. It may be that they still really like to paint the fantasy figures but no longer have the time to paint an army. Now we have a few company's producing fantasy subjects in 54mm. Andra, Pegaso, Enigma to name a few. I did a 54mm converson A few years back and it was really a lot of fun for me. I did not have to spend hours pouring over research it was inspired by fantasy painting by Larry Elmore but not a copy his painting exactly.

It reminded me why I got in to the hobby in the first place.

 

[busso_boy]

i think its up to each one of us to promote the hobby as best we can when we can to who we can. As a trader in over the last couple of years i've taken my trade stand to some unlikely places with mixed results but as a vendor i do all i can to spark interest in the public not just to increase my income but to draw more to the hobby in general

I take pride in the fact i know i have introduced 3 people close to me into figure painting and opened the eyes of several warhammer "kids" to the wider world of figure painting mainly through the help of Andrea's wonderful 54mm fantasy range

A figure is a figure and they all should be embraced historical or fantasy

 

[dannyk01]

Well as Tony may know (or may not), The SMCWA (Scale Modellers Club of Western Australia) has got thier own club house now and that is almost purley devoted to passing the hobby on the people my age and younger.

About a year and a half ago they started a program to teach kids how to build model aeroplanes (they needed to buy a reccomended aeroplane). I was part of the first 10 to do this program just so i can get a bit better at the hobby in general and see how others do it. From there after doing the program i joined a model club and have done a couple tanks and now am onto figures.

Other than me, i have been told that over 100 kids have been through the program now we usually see some of them coninuing the hobby. Even though that it is not figures, some of them are leaning towards that way and it is proof that the hobby can be kept alive by showing them that they can actually build the models and paint them and give them that satisfication of a complete model.

Another thing that is making the hobby known is that the kids that have learnt have told thier brothers, sister and evven thier friends to start modelling. Even a mother who bought both her Son and Daughter is giving a go at doing all different things.

I believe if people just know that basics of modelling they will eventually lean over towards doing figures eventually and maybe enjoy that more than doing planes (the way i got into doing figures )
Daniel